NATO jet crashes; air strikes continue

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia {AP} A U.S. fighter jet went down in hostile Serb territory on Sunday, but the pilot was plucked to safety by NATO search-and-rescue forces.

The alliance pounded Yugoslavia with new attacks, and a spokesman said there would be "no reward" for Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic for freeing three U.S. soldiers.

"What he's got to understand is that the decision that's going to impress us most is the decision to order troops out of Kosovo" and "clearly and unambiguously" accept an armed international force, said Jamie Shea, NATO's chief spokesman.

Forty days into the air strikes, refugees continued to stream out of Kosovo by the thousands. Some entering Albania said Serb border police had prevented women and children from Kosovo's second-largest city, Prizren, from crossing into the country on Sunday.

The American POWs, freed in Belgrade and bused to the border, walked to freedom in Croatia holding hands with the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who negotiated their release. They later flew to a U.S. base in Germany and will be reunited with their families on today.

But in a pair of setbacks for NATO's air force, an American F-16 crashed in western Serbia and the alliance reported that a U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier had gone down in the Adriatic Sea the previous day. The pilots of both planes were rescued in good health, the alliance said.

NATO blamed the F-16 crash on engine failure and said it was investigating.

Yugoslav authorities claimed their anti-aircraft gunners had shot the fighter-bomber down. Serbian television showed footage of metal chunks of the wreckage, some with writing in English, near the village of Nakucani, 50 miles west of Belgrade.

Allied search-and-rescue units picked up the pilot two hours after the pre-dawn crash near the Bosnia-Serbia border, Shea said.

It was the first allied plane to go down over Yugoslavia since a U.S. F-117 stealth fighter crashed on March 27. The pilot of that plane also was rescued.

NATO also has said it was responsible for bombing a bus north of the Kosovo capital, Pristina, on Saturday. The Yugoslav Foreign Ministry said the attack killed 47 people and seriously injured 17. Grisly footage on Serb television showed body parts and the ripped-up shell of the bus.

Alliance officials said it was "unfortunate" that a bus had crossed the bridge, which it called a military target.